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Pakistan's first female prime minister was killed while campaigning in 2007

Musharraf has been under house arrest since April

A Pakistani court Tuesday indicted President Pervez Musharraf, charging him with murder in the death of the country's first female prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. It marked the first time an ex-military chief has been indicted with a crime in the country, his spokesman Raza Bokhari said.

The court charged Musharraf with murder, criminal conspiracy to murder, and facilitation of murder.

Bhutto was assassinated in a gun-suicide attack in December 2007, shortly after she came back to Pakistan from self-imposed exile to take part in the 2008 general elections. Musharraf was president and military chief at the time, and Bhutto was a leading opposition figure.

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The next court proceedings in the case are scheduled for August 27.

"The politically motivated indictment... is not only false, fabricated and fictitious, but is also an undignified attempt to smear the honor and integrity of the former president on the world stage," Musharraf spokesman Raza Bokhari said in a statement.

The indictment comes after a preliminary judicial process in which authorities presented their case against him. The indictment means that the court concluded he has to answer for the allegations.

Although Musharraf has been accused of other crimes in the country, no other cases have gotten as far as an indictment.

Just two weeks ago, Musharraf's attorney said Musharraf was expected to be charged with failing to provide adequate security for Bhutto -- not murder.

After the assassination, Musharraf's government blamed former Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, saying he had paid a network of Islamist militants to carry out the killing.

Bhutto had the "same security and threats" that Musharraf faces now, Bokhari told CNN Tuesday. "It is unfair to blame a sitting head of state for complicity in a violent action that occurs in a country."

After the general elections in 2008 in which his party was trounced, Musharraf stepped down as the governing coalition began taking steps to impeach him.